This Dialogue provides researchers with background on the environmental justice movement and an overview of the legal materials that address environmental justice. It summarizes federal and state statutory and case law that relates to environmental justice and lists legal periodicals, technical periodicals, popular periodicals, and books. It also provides the addresses and phone numbers of selected organizations that work in the environmental justice movement. It concludes with some notes explaining how to update the sources it reviews.

Editors' Summary: Tension regarding state and tribal sovereignty over issues affecting Native American reservations has been on the increase for decades. Among these issues, protection of the environment is one of the most prominent. This Article discusses the role and extent of tribal sovereignty over air quality decisionmaking and examines the tools available to Native American tribes to protect air quality on the reservation from sources both inside and outside reservation boundaries.

Editors' Summary: State and federal appellate courts are almost evenly split on the meaning of the pollution exclusion clause in standard comprehensive general liability insurance policies. The authors of this Article argue that — even in jurisdictions where appellate decisions favor insurers — policyholders can win environmental insurance coverage cases at trial. The Article begins by reviewing general legal principles of insurance coverage, the evolution of policy language applicable to environmental coverage claims, and the recent case law.

Editors' Summary: The U.S. Supreme Court's 1984 landmark decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (Chevron) set out a two-step test for determining when to accord deference to federal agency interpretations of statutory provisions, holding that where a statute is ambiguous, the judiciary must defer to any reasonable interpretation offered by the agency charged with administering the statute. This Article examines City of Chicago v. Environmental Defense Fund and PUD No. 1 of Jefferson County v.

Editors' Summary: In this second of a three-part series, the authors examine the knowledge element in environmental crimes. They point out that while mens rea—or "guilty knowledge"—is a required element of most criminal offenses, a distinguishing feature of environmental crimes is that they require minimal proof of knowledge to sustain a conviction.

Editors' Summary: In this last of a three-part series, the authors provide a "how-to" guide for responding to an environmental criminal investigation and discuss the ramifications of an environmental criminal conviction. They first describe several basic procedures that the target of a governmental investigation should follow, emphasizing that the first and best line of defense is to have in place an effective environmental self-auditing program to identify pollution threats and to correct minor problems before they become serious.

Editors' Summary: After three years of work, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has essentially completed its voluntary environmental management systems standard—ISO 14001. This Article reviews the standard's development, summarizes its goals and key elements, and discusses potential approaches to conforming to the standard. Next, the Article analyzes potential domestic applications of the standard in the context of current federal efforts to encourage private compliance-assurance programs.

In 1994, a California case called Titan Corp. v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Co.¹ seemed to signal the closing of the door on insureds' hopes for insurance coverage for environmental cleanups under the Personal Injury section of their commercial general liability policies. However, a recent California Court of Appeal case, Martin Marietta Corp. v. Insurance Co. of North America,² may mean that the door remains ajar.

This past year has been one of upheaval and trauma for environmentalists. The issues have been big, fought out at the highest levels of government and in headlines and TV sound bites. The stakes are high, higher than at any time in the quarter century since the movement's birth.

Project XL is built on the simple premise that in many cases companies know their business a whole lot better than the government does; that they understand how best to reduce their own pollution; that we will all benefit if private enterprise brings its energy, its innovation, its creativity to the task of reducing pollution ….

President Clinton¹

If it isn't illegal, it isn't XL.

Motto of EPA staff²